Easy Kid-Made Robot Hat

This is too cute not to share.

After school one day, JJ (6 years old) said she wanted to work on a ‘project’, asked if she could use some pipe cleaners (aka chenille stems) from our craft cupboard.

I’ve been encouraging the kids to come up with their own creative ideas lately, after reading an awesome book called Project-based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners (affiliate link), and so I got some pipe-cleaners down, but didn’t ask too many questions. We’ve talked a lot about ‘project time’ lately, and JJ knows when she’s doing a project, she can do whatever she likes (within reason), and my job isn’t to direct her project as such, but rather to help her with accessing supplies, find answers to any questions she may have, etc. So I didn’t want to interfere until I was asked – but I’ll admit I was very curious though!

She must have helped herself to the colander from the kitchen cupboard, because when I next wandered past, she was in the middle of making this awesome robot hat. She twirled the pipe cleaners around her finger first to make them all ‘curly’ and then stuck one end into the top of the colander to look like hair. (Interestingly, I hadn’t ever shown her how to do this, so maybe she worked it out for herself?)

She was also adding buttons around the perimeter, by sticking the end of a pipe cleaner into one of the holes in side, and then wrapped the rest of the pipe cleaner around itself. Each button was for a different action. One turned the robot on, one turned it off, one made it sing, one made it dance and one made it talk.

(Sorry that the photos are a bit grainy, I must have had my camera set incorrectly that day.)

JJ was so proud of her creation! The kids had lots of fun taking turns to wear the robot hat and making each other sing and dance.

We don’t have our old DIY cardboard robot costume anymore, but they would have worked so well together, as a robot costume for a dress-up party, for Halloween, or just for fun!

xx Danya

^* This post contains affiliate link(s). An affiliate link means I may earn advertising / referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this little blog afloat. Thanks for your support.